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FROM   THE   LIBRARY  OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


J  nu  L. 


& 


Lj^f* 


*t   _ y^n 


?-7 


/I  Hv+/  /J /I  Let*  If 


0U°   /<Pff; 


MAF 


5  1937 


The  Journal 

of 

Theological    Studies 


October,    1899 


40  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 


Robert    BviJj" 

A    PRACTICAL    DISCOURSE    ON    SOME 
PRINCIPLES   OF    HYMN-SINGING. 

What  St.  Augustin  says  of  the  emotion  which  he  felt  on 
hearing  the  music  in  the  Portian  basilica  at  Milan  in  the  year 
386  has  always  seemed  to  me  a  good  illustration  of  the  relativity 
of  musical  expression ;  I  mean  how  much  more  its  ethical 
significance  depends  on  the  musical  experience  of  the  hearer, 
than  on  any  special  accomplishment  or  intrinsic  development  of 
the  art.  Knowing  of  what  kind  that  music  must  have  been 
and  how  few  resources  of  expression  it  can  have  had, — being 
rudimental  in  form,  without  suggestion  of  harmony,  and  in 
its  performance  unskilful,  its  probably  nasal  voice-production 
unmodified  by  any  accompaniment, — one  marvels  at  his 
description, 

'  What  tears  I  shed  at  Thy  hymns  and  canticles,  how  acutely  was  my 
soul  stirred  by  the  voices  and  sweet  music  of  Thy  Church !  As  those 
voices  entered  my  ears,  truth  distilled  in  my  heart,  and  thence  divine 
affection  welled  up  in  a  flood,  in  tears  o'erflowing,  and  happy  was  I  in 
those  tears  V 

St  Augustin  appears  to  have  witnessed  the  beginnings  of  the 
great  music  of  the  Western  Church.  It  was  the  year  of  his  bap- 
tism when,  he  tells  us,  singing  was  introduced  at  Milan  to  cheer 
the  Catholics  who  had  shut  themselves  up  in  the  basilica  with 
their  bishop,  to  defend  him  from  the  imperial  violence : 

1  It  was  then  instituted  that  psalms  and  hymns  should  be  sung,  after 
the  manner  of  the  Eastern  Churches,  lest  the  folk  in  the  weariness  of 
their  grief  should  altogether  lose  heart :  and  from  that  day  to  this  the 
custom  has  been  retained;  many,  nay,  nearly  all  Thy  flocks,  in  all 
regions  of  the  world,  following  the  example  V 

What    great    emotional    power    St.    Augustin    attributed    to 

1  Con/ess.  ix  6.  2  Ibid,  ix  7.  •• 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGH  41 

ecclesiastical  music,  and  of  what  importance  he  thought  it,  may 
be  seen  in  the  tenth  book  of  the  Confessions  :  he  is  there  examining 
himself  under  the  heads  of  the  senses,  and  after  the  sense  of 
smell,  his  chapter  on  the  sense  of  hearing  is  as  follows: — 

'  The  lust  of  the  cars  entangled  and  enslaved  me  more  firmly,  but 
Thou  hast  loosened  and  set  me  free.  But  even  now  I  confess  that  I  do 
yield  a  very  little  to  the  beauty  of  those  sounds  which  are  animated  by 
Thy  eloquence,  when  sung  with  a  sweet  and  practised  voice  ;  not, 
indeed,  so  far  that  I  am  limed  and  cannot  fly  off  at  pleasure  '  :  and 
yield  though  I  do,  yet  these  sweet  sounds,  joined  with  the  divine  words 
which  are  their  life,  cannot  be  admitted  to  my  heart  save  to  a  place  of 
some  dignity,  and  I  hesitate  to  give  them  one  as  lofty  as  their  claim  ". 

For  sometimes  I  seem  to  myself  to  be  allowing  them  undue  honour, 
when  I  feel  that  our  minds  are  really  moved  to  a  warmer  devotion 
and  more  ardent  piety  by  the  holy  words  themselves  when  they  are  so 
sung  than  when  they  are  not  so  sung ;  and  when  I  recognize  that  all 
the  various  moods  of  our  spirit  have  their  proper  tones  in  speech  and 
song,  by  which  they  are,  through  I  know  not  what  secret  familiarity, 
excited.  But  the  mere  sensuous  delight,  to  which  it  is  not  fitting  to 
resign  the  mind  to  be  enervated  thereby,  often  deceives  me,  whenever 
(that  is)  the  delight  of  the  senses  does  not  so  accompany  the  reason  as 
to  be  cheerfully  in  submission  thereto,  but,  having  been  admitted  only 
for  reason's  sake,  then  even  attempts  to  go  before  and  to  lead.  Thus 
I  sin  without  knowing,  but  afterwards  I  know. 

Then  awhile,  from  too  immoderate  caution  against  this  deception, 
I  err  on  the  side  of  too  great  severity  ;  and  sometimes  go  so  far  as  to 
wish  that  all  the  melody  of  the  sweet  chants  which  are  used  in  the 
Davidian  psalter  were  utterly  banished  from  my  ears,  and  from  the  ears 
of  the  Church;  and  that  way  seems  to  me  safer  which  I  remember 
often  to  have  heard  told  of  Athanasius,  archbishop  of  Alexandria,  that 
he  would  have  the  lector  of  the  psalm  intone  it  with  but  a  slight 
modulation  of  voice,  so  as  to  be  more  like  one  reading  than  one 
singing.  And  yet,  when  I  remember  my  tears,  which  I  shed  at  the 
hearing  of  the  song  of  Thy  Church  in  the  first  days  of  my  recovered 
faith,  and  that  now  I  still  feel  the  same  emotion,  and  am  moved  not  by 
the  singing  but  by  what  is  sung,  when  it  is  sung  with  a  liquid  voice  and 
in  the  most  fitting  "  modulation,''  then  (I  say)  I  acknowledge  again  the 
great  utility  of  the  institution. 

Thus  I  fluctuate  between  the  peril  of  sensuous  pleasure  and  the  proof 

1  This  is  perhaps  rather  a  quality  proper  to  the  sensation. 

3  'Et  vix  cis  praebeo  congruentem  [locum],'  which  might  only  mean  'I  cannot  find 
the  right  place  for  them.' 


42  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

of  wholesomeness,  and  am  more  inclined  (though  I  would  not  offer  an 
irrevocable  judgement)  to  approve  of  the  use  of  singing  in  the  Church, 
that,  by  the  pleasure  of  the  ear,  weaker  minds  may  rise  to  the  emotion 
of  piety.  Yet  when  it  happens  to  me  to  be  more  moved  by  the  music 
than  by  the  words  that  are  sung  I  confess  that  I  have  sinned  (poenaliter 
peccare),  and  it  is  then  that  I  would  rather  not  hear  the  singer  V 

What  would  St.  Augustin  have  said  could  he  have  heard 
Mozart's  Requiem,  or  been  present  at  some  Roman  Catholic 
cathedral  where  an  eighteenth-century  mass  was  performed, 
a  woman  hired  from  the  Opera- House  whooping  the  Benedictus 
from  the  western  gallery  ? 

It  is  possible  that  such  music  would  not  have  had  any  ethical 
significance  to  him,  bad  or  good.  Augustin  lived  before  what  we 
reckon  the  very  beginnings  of  modern  music,  with  nothing  to  entice 
and  delight  his  ears  in  the  choir  but  the  simplest  ecclesiastical 
chant  and  hymn-tune  sung  in  unison.  We  are  accustomed  to 
an  almost  over-elaborated  art,  which,  having  won  powers  of 
expression  in  all  directions,  has  so  squandered  them  that  they 
are  of  little  value :  and  we  may  confidently  say  that  the  emotional 
power  of  our  church  music  is  not  so  great  as  that  described  by 
him  1,500  years  ago.  In  fact  if  we  feel  at  all  out  of  sympathy 
with  Augustin's  words,  it  is  because  he  seems  to  over-estimate 
the  danger  of  the  emotion  2. 

There  is  something  very  strange  and  surprising  in  this  state  of 
things,  this  contrast  between  the  primitive  Church  with  its  few 
simple  melodies  that  ravished  the  educated  hearer,  and  our  own 
full-blown  institution  with  its  hymn-book  of  some  600  tunes, 
which  when  it  is  opened  fills  the  sensitive  worshipper  with 
dismay,  so  that  there  are  persons  who  would  rather  not  go  inside 
a  church  than  subject  themselves  to  the  trial. 

What  is  the  matter?  What  is  it  that  is  wrong  with  our 
hymnody?  Even  where  there  is  not  such  rooted  disgust  as 
I  have  implied,  there  is  a  growing  conviction  that  some  reform 
is  needed  in  words  or  music  or  both. 

Assuming  that  the  chief  blame  lies  with  the  music  (as,  I  think, 
might  easily  be  proved),  I  propose  to  discuss  the  question  of  the 

1  Confess,  x  33. 

2  St.  Augustin  does  not  allow  that  a  vague  emotion  can  be  religious  ;  it  must  be 
directed.     Few  would  agree  to  this. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  43 

music  of  our  hymnody,  and  I  shall  proceed  on  the  basis  of 
St.  Augustin's  principles:  I  am  sure  that  they  would  be  endorsed 
by  any  pious  church-goer  who  had  considered  the  subject,  and 
they  may  be  fairly  formulated  thus,  The  music  must  express  the 
words  or  sense  :  it  should  not  attract  too  much  attention  to  itself : 
it  should  be  dignified:  and  its  reason  and  use  is  to  heighten 
religious  emotion. 

One  point  calls  for  distinction:  Augustin  speaks  of  his  emotion 
on  hearing  the  hymns  and  canticles  ;  he  writes  as  if  he  had  had 
no  more  thought  of  taking  part  in  the  music  himself,  than  we 
have  of  joining  in  the  anthem  at  a  cathedral ;  and  this  might 
lead  to  a  misunderstanding  ;  for  there  is  no  doubt  that  these 
hymns  were  sung  by  the  people  :  the  story  is  that  the  very 
soldiers  who  were  sent  to  blockade  the  basilica,  happening  to  be 
themselves  catholics,  joined  their  voices  in  the  stanzas  which 
St.  Ambrose  had  specially  composed  to  disconcert  the  Arian 
enemy. 

The  ecstasy  of  listening  to  music,  and  the  enthusiasm  of 
a  crowd  who  arc  all  singing  or  shouting  the  same  hymn  or  song 
are  emotions  of  quite  different  nature  and  Value.  Now,  neglecting 
the  rare  conditions  under  which  these  emotions  may  be  combined, 
we  shall,  as  we  are  speaking  of  hymns,  be  concerned  chiefly  with 
the  latter  kind,  for  all  will  agree  that  hymns  are  that  part  of  the 
Church  music  in  which  it  is  most  desirable  that  the  congregation 
should  join :  and  I  believe  that  there  would  be  less  difference  in 
practice  if  it  were  at  all  easy  to  obtain  good  congregational 
singing,  or  even  anything  that  is  worthy  of  the  name.  It  seems 
perhaps  a  pity  that  nature  should  have  arranged  that  where  the 
people  are  musical  (as  Augustin  appears  to  have  been)  they 
would  rather  listen,  and  where  they  are  unmusical  they  would 
all  rather  sing. 

Speaking  therefore  of  congregational  hymn-singing,  and 
conceding,  as  I  think  we  must,  that  the  essential  use  of  such 
music  is- to  heighten  emotion,  then,  this  emotional  quality  being 
the  sine  qua  non  (the  music  being  of  no  use  without  it),  it  follows 
that  it  is  the  primary  consideration.  If  we  are  to  have  music  at 
all,  it  must  be  such  as  will  raise  or  heighten  emotion ;  and  to 
define  this  we  must  ask,  Whose  emotion'  and  What  kind  of 
emotion  ? 


44  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

Let  us  take  this  latter  question  first,  and  inquire  what  emotions 
it  is  usual,  proper,  or  possible  to  express  by  congregational 
singing  of  hymns.  William  Law,  in  his  Serious  Ca/l,  has  an 
interesting,  I  may  say  amusing,  chapter  on  the  duty  of  all  to 
sing,  whether  they  have  any  turn  or  inclination  for  it  or  no.  All 
should  sing,  he  says,  even  though  they  dislike  doing  so,  and 
I  think  that  what  he  affirms  of  private  devotion  applies  with 
greater  force  to  public  worship.  It  should  satisfy  the  most 
ardent  advocate  of  congregational  singing,  and  it  goes  certainly 
to  the  root  of  the  matter. 

1  It  is  so  right  and  beneficial  to  devotion,  has  so  much  effect  upon 
our  hearts,  that  it  may  be  insisted  on  as  a  common  rule  for  all  persons 
...  for  singing  is  as  much  the  proper  use  of  a  psalm  as  devout 
supplication  is  the  proper  use  of  a  form  of  prayer  :  and  a  psalm  only 
read  is  very  much  like  a  prayer  that  is  only  looked  over.  ...  If  you 
were  to  tell  a  person  that  has  such  a  song,  that  he  need  not  sing  it,  that 
it  was  sufficient  to  peruse  it,  he  would  wonder  what  you  meant,  ...  as 
if  you  were  to  tell  him  that  he  should  only  look  at  his  food,  to  see 
whether  it  was  good,  but  need  not  eat  it.  .  .  .  You  will  perhaps  say  that 
singing  is  a  particular  talent,  that  belongs  only  to  particular  people,  and 
that  you  have  neither  voice  nor  ear  for  music. 

If  you  had  said  that  singing  is  a  general  talent,  and  that  people  differ 
in  that  as  they  do  in  all  other  things,  you  had  said  something  much 
truer. 

For  how  vastly  people  differ  in  the  talent  of  thinking,  which  is 
not  only  common  to  all  men,  but  seems,  to  be  the  very  essence  of 
human  nature  :  .  .  .  Yet  no  one  desires  to  be  excused  from  thought 
because  he  has  not  this  talent  in  any  fine  degree.  .  .  . 

If  a  person  were  to  forbear  praying  because  he  had  an  odd  tone  in 
his  voice,  he  would  have  as  good  an  excuse  as  he  that  forbears  from 
singing  psalms  because  he  has  but  little  management  of  his  voice.  .  .  . 

These  songs  make  a  sense  (of)  delight  in  God  \  they  awaken  holy 
devotion  :  they  teach  how  to  ask :  they  kindle  a  holy  flame.  .  .  . 

Singing  is  the  natural  effect  of  joy  in  the  heart  .  .  .  and  it  is  also  the 
natural  means  of  raising  emotions  of  joy  in  the  mind  :  such  joy  and 
thankfulness  to  God  as  is  the  highest  perfection  of  a  divine  and  holy 
life.' 

Now  though  I  cannot  feel  the  force  of  all  Law's  arguments 
nor  easily  bring  myself  to  believe  that  a  person  who  dislikes 
singing,  and  has  no  ear  for  music,  will  readily  find  any  comfort- 
able assistance  to  his  private  devotion  from  making  efforts  to  hit 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  45 

off  the  notes  of  the  scale  ;  yet  I  feel  that  Law's  position  IS  in  the 
main  sound,  and  that  lie  has  correctly  specified  the  emotion  most 
proper  to  that  kind  of  uncultured  singing  which  he  descrih 
and  though  congregational  psalm-singing  necessarily  involves 
a  greater  musical  capacity  than  that  assumed  in  Law's  extreme 
case,  and  may  therefore  have  a  wider  field,  yet  we  may  begin  by 
laying  down  that  JOY,  PRAISE,  and  THANKSGIVING  give  us  the 
first  main  head  of  what  is  proper  to  be  expressed,  and  we  may 
extend  this  head  by  adding  ADORATION  and  perhaps  the  involved 
emotions  of  AWE  and  PEACE  and  even  the  attitude  of  contem- 
plation. 

In  such  a  subject  as  the  classification  of  emotions  as  they 
may  be  expressed  by  music  of  one  kind  or  another,  it  is  plainly 
impossible  to  make  any  definite  tabulation  with  which  all  would 
agree.  The  very  names  of  the  emotions  will,  to  different  minds, 
call  up  different  associations  of  feeling.  If  any  agreement  could 
be  arrived  at,  it  would  be  at  the  expense  of  distinction  ;  and 
all  that  I  can  expect  is  to  have  my  distinctions  understood, 
and  in  the  main  agreed  with.  And  as  I  am  most  ready  to 
grant  to  the  reader  his  right  to  a  different  opinion  on  any  detail, 
I  beg  of  him  the  same  toleration,  and  that  he  will  rather  try  to 
follow  my  meaning  than  dwell  on  discrepancies  which  may  be 
due  to  a  fault  of  expression,  or  to  a  difference  of  meaning  which 
he  and  I  may  attach  to  the  same  word. 

With  this  apology  in  preamble,  I  will  attempt  to  make  some 
classification  of  emotions  as  they  seem  to  me  to  be  the  possible 
basis  for  musical  expression  in  congregational  singing. 

We  have  already  one  class :  I  would  add  a  second,  to  include 
all  the  hymns  which  exhibit  the  simple  attitude  of  PRAYER. 

A  third  class  I  would  put  under  the  head  of  FAITH.  Examples 
of  this  class  will  no  doubt  often  cross  with  those  of  the  first  class, 
but  they  will  specify  themselves  as  CELEBRATIONS  of  events  of 
various  COMMEMORATION,  introducing  .a  distinct  form,  namely 
NARRATION,  which  is  a  very  proper  and  effective  form  for 
general  praise. 

Also  this  section  will  include  all  the  hymns  of  BROTHERHOOD 
and  FELLOWSHIP,  and  of  SPIRITUAL  CONFLICT,  with  the  corre- 
lative invitatory  and  exhortatory  songs,  as  modified  by  what  will 
be  said  later. 


46  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

Also,  lastly,  under  this  same  head  of  Faith,  the  DOCTRINAL 
hymns,  and  professions  of  creed  whether  sectarian  or  otherwise, 
which,  if  the  definition  be  taken  widely,  make  a  large  and  popular 
class,  well  exemplified  by  the  German  hymns  of  the  Reformation, 
or  by  those  of  our  Wesleyan  revival :  strong  with  the  united 
feeling  of  a  small  body,  asserting  itself  in  the  face  of  opposition  : 
concerning  which  we  will  not  speak  further,  except  to  recall  the 
fact  that  this  kind  of  enthusiasm  was  not  absent  from  the  causes 
which  first  introduced  hymns  into  the  Western  Church. 

I  believe  that  this  is  a  pretty  full  list  of  all  the  attitudes  of 
mind  that  can  be  properly  expressed  by  congregational  singing  ; 
and  if  we  turn  to  other  emotions  which  are  made  the  subject 
of  church  hymns,  we  shall,  I  think,  see  that  they  are  all  of  them 
liable  to  suffer  damage  by  being  entrusted  to  the  rough  handling 
of  general  vociferation. 

Such  will  be  all  hymns  of  DIVINE  AFFECTION  and  YEARNING  ; 
all  LAMENTS  and  CONSOLATIONS  ;  all  descriptions  of  spiritual 
conditions  which  imply  personal  experience  and  feeling,  as 
ABASEMENT,  HUMILIATION,  CONTRITION,  REPENTANCE,  RESIG- 
NATION, SELF-DEVOTION,  CONVICTION,  and  SATISFACTION. 

Here  I  feel  that  many  readers  will  be  inclined  to  dissent  from 
what  I  say,  and  as  I  shall  not  again  recur  to  Law,  I  should  like, 
in  order  to  show  my  meaning,  to  call  up  his  extreme  example  of 
an  unmusical  person  singing  in  private  devotion.  If  one  pictures 
such  a  case  as  he  supposes,  is  it  not  clear,  whether  one  imagines 
oneself  the  actor  or  the  unwilling  auditor,  that  while  such  an 
exhibition  of  joy  might  perhaps  pass,  yet  a  similar  incompetent 
attempt  to  express  any  of  the  last-named  emotions  would  be 
only  ridiculous?  But  between  this  single  worshipper  and  the 
congregation  the  incompetence  seems  to  me  only  a  question  of 
degree  ;  while  in  the  far  more  considerable  respect  of  the  sincerity 
of  the  feeling  in  the  hearts  of  those  expressing  it,  Law's  singer 
has  every  advantage  ;  indeed  no  objection  on  this  score  can  be 
raised  to  him.  But  now  suppose  for  a  moment  that  he  has  not 
the  emotion  at  heart  corresponding  to  his  attempt  at  song,  and 
I  think  the  differentiation  of  motives  for  congregational  singing 
will  seem  justifiable. 

All  these  last-named  emotions, — which  I  have  taken  from 
congregational  hymn-books, — and  I  suppose  there  may  be  more 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  47 

of  them, — call  for  delicacy  of  treatment.  A  Lamentation,  for 
instance,  which  might  seem  at  first  sight  as  if  it  would  gain  force 
by  volume,  will,  if  it  is  realistic  or  clumsy,  become  unmanly, 
almost  so  as  to  be  ridiculous,  and  certainly  depressing  to  the 

spirit  rather  than  purifying.  In  fact  while  many  of  the  subjects 
require  beautiful  expression,  they  arc  also  more  properly  used 
when  offered  as  inspiring  ideals  ;  and  to  assume  them  to  be 
of  common  attainment  or  experience  is  to  degrade  them  from 
their  supreme  sanctity.  But  in  thus  ruling  them  unfit  for  general 
singing  one  must  distinguish  large  miscellaneous  congregations 
from  small  united  bodies,  in  which  a  more  intimate  emotion  may 
be  natural:  and  as  there  is  no  exact  line  of  distinction  here,  so 
there  is  no  objection  to  the  occasional  and  partial  intrusion  of 
some  of  these  more  intimate  subjects  into  congregational 
hymns. 

To  this  first  question  then,  as  to  what  emotions  are  fit  to 
be  expressed  by  congregational  music,  the  answer  appears  to  be 
that  the  more  general  the  singing,  the  more  general  and  simple 
should  be  the  emotion ;  and  that  the  universally  fitting  themes 
are  those  of  simple  praise,  prayer,  or  faith  :  and  we  might  inquire 
whether  one  fault  of  our  modern  hymn-books  may  not  be  their 
attempt  to  supply  congregational  music  to  unfitting  themes. 

To  the  next  question,  Whose  emotio7i  is  this  congregational 
music  to  excite  or  heighten?  the  answer  is  plain:  It  is  the 
average  man,  or  one  rather  below  the  average,  the  uneducated, 
as  St.  Augustin  says  the  weaker,  mind ;  and  that  in  England  is. 
at  least  artistically,  a  narrow  mind  and  a  vulgar  being.  And 
it  may  of  course  be  alleged  that  the  music  in  our  hymn-books 
which  is  intolerable  to  the  more  sensitive  minds  was  not  put  there 
for  them,  but  would  justify  itself  in  its  supposed  fitness  for  the 
lower  classes.  '  What  use,'  the  pastor  would  say  to  one  who, 
on  the  ground  of  tradition  advocated  the  employment  of  the  old 
plain-song  and  the  Ambrosian  melodies,  '  What  use  to  seek  to 
attract  such  people  as  those  in  my  cure  with  the  ancient  out- 
landish and  stiff  melodies  that  pleased  folk  a  thousand  years  ago. 
and  which  I  cannot  pretend  to  like  myself?'  Or  if  his  friend 
is  a  modern  musician,  who  is  urging  him  to  have  nothing  in  his 
church  but  what  would  satisfy  the  highest  artistic  sense  of  the 
day,  his  answer  is  the  same :    he  will  tell  you  that  it  would  be 


48  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

casting  pearls  before  swine ;  and  that  unless  the  music  is  '  tuney  ' 
and  '  catchy '  the  people  will  not  take  to  it.  And  we  cannot 
hastily  dismiss  these  practical  objections.  The  very  Ambrosian 
music  which  is  now  so  strange  to  modern  ears  was  doubtless, 
when  St.  Ambrose  introduced  it,  much  akin  to  the  secular  music 
of  the  day,  if  it  was  not  directly  borrowed  from  it :  and  the 
history  of  hymn-music  is  a  history  of  the  adaptations  of  profane 
successes  in  the  art  to  the  uses  of  the  Church.  Nor  do  I  see  that 
it  can  ever  be  otherwise,  for  the  highest  music  demands  a  super- 
natural material ;  so  that  it  would  seem  an  equal  folly  for 
musicians  to  neglect  the  unique  opportunity  which  religion  offers 
them,  and  for  religion  to  refuse  the  best  productions  of  human 
art.  And  we  must  also  remember  that  the  art  of  the  time, 
whether  it  be  bad  or  good,  has  a  much  more  living  relation 
to  the  generation  which  is  producing  it,  and  exerts  a  more 
powerful  influence  upon  it,  than  the  art  of  any  time  that  is  past 
and  gone.  It  is  the  same  in  all  aspects  of  life :  it  is  the  book 
of  the  day,  the  hero  or  statesman  of  the  hour,  the  newest  hope, 
the  latest  flash  of  scientific  light,  which  attracts  the  people.  And 
it  must  be,  on  the  face  of  it,  true  that  any  artist  who  becomes 
widely  popular  must  have  hit  off,  '  I  know  not  by  what  secret 
familiarity.'  the  exact  fashion  or  caprice  of  the  current  taste 
of  his  own  generation. 

And  this  is  so  true  that  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  not 
always  the  uneducated  man  only  whose  taste  is  hit  off.  In  the 
obituary  notices  of  such  men  as  Gladstone  and  Tennyson  the 
gossip  will  inform  us,  rightly  or  wrongly,  that  their  '  favourite 
hymn1'  was,  not  one  of  the  great  masterpieces  of  the  world, — 
which,  alas,  it  is  only  too  likely  that  in  their  long  lives  they  never 
heard, — but  some  tune  of  the  day  :  as  if  in  the  minds  of  men 
whose  lives  appealed  strongly  to  their  age  there  must  be  some- 
thing delicately  responsive  to  the  exact  ripple  of  the  common 
taste  and  fashion  of  their  generation. 

All  this  makes  a  strong  case :  and  it  would  seem,  since  our 
hymn-music  is  to  stir  the  emotions  of  the  vulgar,  that  it  must 
itself  be  both  vulgar  and  modern  ;    and  that,  in  the  interest  of 

1  I  assume  '  favourite  hymn '  to  mean  a  sung  hymn.  The  interest  of  the  record 
must  lie  in  its  being  of  a  heightened  emotion  of  the  same  kind  as  that  described  by 
St.  Augustin  in  his  own  case,  What  tears  I  shed,  &c. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  49 

the  weaker  mind,  we  must  renounce  all  ancient  tradition  and  the 
maxims  of  art,  in  order  to  be  in  touch  with  the  music-halls. 

This  is  impossibly  absurd ;  and  unless  there  is  some  flaw  in 
our  argument,  the  fault  must  lie  in  the  premisses ;  we  have 
omitted  some  necessary  qualification. 

The  qualification  which  we  neglected  is  this,  that  the  music 
must  be  dignified,  and  suitable  to  the  meaning  ;  and  we  should 
only  have  wasted  words  in  ignoring  what  we  knew  all  along, 
if  we  had  not,  by  so  doing,  brought  this  qualification  into  its 
vital  prominence,  and  at  the  same  time  exposed  the  position 
of  those  who  neglect  it,  and  the  real  reason  of  the  mean  condition 
of  our  church  music. 

The  use  of  undignified  music  for  sacred  purposes  may  perhaps 
be  justified  in  exceptional  cases,  which  must  be  left  to  the 
judgement  of  those  who  consider  all  things  lawful  that  they  may 
save  some.  But  if  from  the  mission  service  this  licence  should 
creep  into  the  special  service,  and  then  invade  every  act  of  public 
worship,  it  must  be  met  with  an  edict  of  unscrupulous  exclusion. 
Not  that  it  can  be  truly  described  as  thus  having  crept  in  in  our 
time.  It  is  always  creeping,  it  has  flourished  in  special  habitats 
for  four  or  five  hundred  years,  and  before  then  there  is  the  history 
of  Palestrina's  great  reform  of  like  abuses.  If  in  our  time  in 
England  we  differ  in  any  respect  for  the  worse,  it  is  rather  in 
the  universal  prevalence  of  a  mild  form  of  the  degradation,  which 
is  perhaps  more  degrading  than  the  occasional  exceptional  abuses 
of  a  more  flagrant  kind,  which  cannot  hide  their  scandal  but 
bring  their  own  condemnation. 

There  is  indeed  no  extreme  from  which  this  abuse  has  shrunk  ; 
perhaps  the  worst  form  of  it  is  the  setting  of  sacred  hymns  to 
popular  airs,  which  are  associated  in  the  minds  of  the  singers 
with  secular,  or  even  comic  and  amatory  words1:  of  which  it 
is  impossible  to  give  examples,  because  the  extreme  instances 
are  blasphemies  unfit  to  be  quoted  ;  and  it  is  only  these  which 

1  It  was  not  an  uncommon  practice  on  the  Continent  (say  from  1540  to  1840)1 
to  print  books  of  hymns  to  be  sung  to  the  current  secular  airs  ;  and  the  names  or 
first  lines  of  these  airs  were  set  above  the  hymn-words  as  the  musical  direction. 
M.  Douen,  in  his  Clement  Ma  rot  et  le  psautur  Huguenot,  vol.  i,  ch.  22,  has  given  an 
account  of  some  of  these  books  ;  and  any  one  who  wishes  to  follow  this  branch  of 
the  subject  may  read  his  chapter.  He  does  not  notice  the  later  Italian  Laudc 
Spiritual!,  which  might  have  supplied  incredible  monsters  to  his  museum. 
VOL.  I.  E 


50  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

could  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  licence 1.  The  essence  of 
the  practice  appears  to  be  the  production  of  a  familiar  excite- 
ment, with  the  intention  of  diverting  it  into  a  religious  channel. 

But,  even  in  the  absence  of  secular  or  profane  association, 
congregational  singing,  when  provoked  by  undignified  music, 
such  as  may  be  found  in  plenty  in  our  modern  hymn-books> 
may  be  maintained  without  the  presence  of  religious  feeling,  out 
of  mere  high  spirits,  or  as  we  say,  '  in  fun,'  and  may  easily  give 
rise  to  mockery.  I  have  witnessed  examples  enough  in  proof 
of  this,  but  if  I  gave  them  it  might  be  thought  that  I  wished 
to  amuse  profane  readers  2.  And  though  such  extreme  disasters 
may  be  exceptional  outbursts,  yet  they  are  always  but  just 
beneath  the  surface,  and  are  the  inevitable  outcome  of  the  use 
of  unworthy  means.  The  cause  of  such  a  choice  of  means  must 
be  either  an  artistic  incapacity  to  distinguish,  or  a  want  of  faith 
in  the  power  of  religious  emotion  when  unaided  by  profane 
adjuncts.  What  would  St.  Augustin  have  ruled  here,  or  thought 
of  the  confusion  of  ideas,  which,  being  satisfied  with  any 
expression,  mistakes  one  emotion  for  another  ? 

Besides,  the  main  fault  of  these  books,  from  which  we  should  have  to  quote, 
is  the  association  of  the  music,  and  this  is  really  an  accident,  the  question  before  us 
being  the  character  of  the  music  ;  so  that  we  should  require  musical  illustration,  for 
though  the  common  distinction  between  sacred  and  secular  music  is  in  the  main 
just,  yet  the  line  cannot  be  drawn  at  the  original  intention,  or  historical  origin  of 
the  music  :  the  true  differentiation  lies  in  the  character  of  the  music,  the  associated 
sentiment  being  liable  to  change.  If  we  were  to  banish  from  our  hymn-books  all 
the  tunes  which  we  know  to  have  a  secular  origin,  we  should  have  to  part  with 
some  of  the  most  sacred  and  solemn  compositions;  and  where  would  the  purist 
obtain  any  assurance  that  the  tunes  which  he  retained  had  a  better  title  ?  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  so  many  fine  hymn-melodies  were  written,  a  musician  was 
working  in  the  approved  manner  if  he  adapted  a  secular  melody,  or  at  least 
borrowed  a  well-known  opening  phrase  :  and  since  the  melodies  of  that  time  were 
composed  mainly  in  conjunct  movement,  such  initial  similarities  were  unavoidable; 
for  one  may  safely  say  that  it  very  soon  became  impossible,  under  such  restrictions, 
to  invent  a  good  opening  phrase  which  had  not  been  used  before.  The  secular 
airs,  too,  of  that  time  were  often  as  fit  for  sacred  as  profane  use  ;  and  if  I  had  to 
find  a  worthy  melody  for  a  good  new  hymn,  I  should  seek  more  hopefully  among 
them  than  in  the  sacred  music  of  our  own  century. 

2  I  may  give  the  following  experience  without  offence.  When  I  was  an  under- 
graduate there  was  a  song  from  a  comic  opera  by  Offenbach  so  much  in  favour  as 
to  be  de  rigueur  at  festive  meetings.  Now  there  was  at  the  same  time  a  counter- 
part of  this  song  popular  at  evensong  in  the  churches  :  it  was  sung  to  '  Hark,  hark, 
my  soul.'  I  believe  it  is  called  Vencens  des  flairs.  They  seemed  to  me  both 
equally  nauseating  :  it  was  certainly  an  accident  that  determined  which  should  be 
sung  at  worship  and  which  at  wine. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  51 

The  practical  question  now  arises.  We  know  the  need  ;  how- 
is  it  to  be  supplied?  We  require  music  which  will  reach  the 
emotions  of  uneducated  people,  and  in  which  they  will  delight 
to  join,  and  in  which  it  shall  be  easy  to  join  :  and  it  must  be 
dignified  and  not  secular.  If  we  condemn  and  reject  the  music 
which  the  professional  church-musicians  have  supplied  with 
some  popular  success  to  meet  the  need,  what  is  there  to  take- 
its  place?  Of  what  music  is  our  hymn-book  to  be  constructed, 
which  shall  be  at  once  dignified,  sacred,  and  popular? 

The  answer  is  very  simple  :  it  is  this,  Dignified  Melody.  Good 
melody  is  never  out  of  fashion  ;  and  as  it  is  by  all  confession  the 
seal  of  high  musical  genius,  so  it  is  that  form  of  music  which 
is  universally  intelligible  and  in  the  best  sense  popular  ;  and  we 
have  a  rich  legacy  of  it.  What  we  want  is  that  our  hymn-books 
should  contain  a  collection  of  the  best  ecclesiastical  and  sacred 
hymn-melodies,  and  nothing  hit  these,  instead  of  having  but 
a  modicum  of  these,  for  the  most  part  mauled  and  illset,  among 
a  crowd  of  contributions  of  an  altogether  inferior  kind ;  the  whole 
collection  being  often  such  that  if  an  illnatured  critic  were  to  assert 
that  the  compilers  had  degraded  and  limited  the  old  music  in 
order  to  set  off  their  own,  it  would  be  difficult  to  meet  him  with 
a  logical  refutation. 

The  shortest  and  most  practical  way  of  treating  this  subject 
will  be  to  give  some  account  of  the  sources  from  which  the  music 
of  such  a  hymn-book  as  I  propose  would  be  drawn.  I  will  take 
these  in  their  chronological  order.  First  in  order  of  time  are 
the  Plain-song  melodies. 

I  have  already  stated  the  ordinary  objection  to  these  tunes, 
that  they  are  stiff  and  out  of  date.  Now  it  may  be  likely 
enough  that  they  will  never  be  so  universally  popular  in  our 
country  as  the  fine  melodies  invented  on  the  modern  harmonic 
system,  yet  the  idea  that  they  are  not  popular  in  character,  and 
that  modern  people  will  not  sing  them,  is  a  mistake  ;  there  is 
plenty  of  evidence  on  this  point.  Nor  must  wc  judge  them 
by  the  incompetent,  and  I  confess  somewhat  revolting  aspect 
in  which  they  were  offered  to  us  by  the  Ang!o-gregoriani>ts 
of  thirty  years  ago,  a  presentment  which  has  gone  far  to  ruin 
their  reputation  ;  they  are  better  understood  now,  and  may  be 
heard   here   and  there  sung  as  they  should  be.     They  are  of 

E  2 


52  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

great  artistic  merit  and  beauty ;  and  instead  of  considering  them 
a  priori  as  uncongenial  on  the  ground  of  antiquity,  we  should 
rather  be  thinking  of  them  that  they  were  invented  at  a  time 
when  unison  singing  was  cultivated  in  the  highest  perfection,  so 
much  so  that  a  large  number  of  these  tunes  are,  on  account  of 
their  elaborate  and  advanced  rhythm,  not  only  far  above  the 
most  intelligent  taste  of  the  minds  with  which  we  have  to  deal, 
but  are  also  so  difficult  of  execution  that  there  are  few  trained 
choirs  in  the  'country  that  could  render  them  well.  To  the 
simpler  tunes,  however,  these  objections  do  not  apply  :  in  fact 
there  are  only  two  objections  that  can  be  urged  against  them, 
and  both  of  these  will  be  found  on  examination  to  be  advantages. 

The  first  objection  is  that  they  are  not  in  the  modern  scale. 
Now  as  this  objection  is  only  felt  by  persons  who  have  cramped 
their  musical  intelligence  by  an  insufficient  technical  education, 
and  cannot  believe  that  music  is  music  unless  they  are  modulating 
in  and  out  of  some  key  by  means  of  a  sharp  seventh  ; — and  as  the 
nature  of  the  ecclesiastical  modes  is  too  long  a  subject,  and 
too  abstruse  for  a  paper  of  this  sort,  even  if  I  were  competent 
to  discuss  it ; — I  shall  therefore  content  myself  by  stating  that  the 
ecclesiastical  modes  have,  for  melodic  purposes  (which  is  all  that 
we  are  considering),  advantages  over  the  modern  scale,  by  which 
they  are  so  surpassed  in  harmonic  opportunities.  Even  such 
a  thoroughgoing  admirer  of  the  modern  system  as  Sir  Hubert 
Parry  writes  on  this  subject,  that  it  '  is  now  quite  obvious  that 
for  melodic  purposes  such  modes  as  the  Doric  and  Phrygian  were 
infinitely  (sic)  preferable  to  the  Ionic,'  i.e.  to  our  modern  major 
keys  1.  And  it  will  be  evident  to  every  one  how  much  music 
has  of  late  years  sought  its  charm  in  modal  forms,  under  the 
guise  of  national  character. 

The  second  objection  is  their  free  rhythm.  They  are  not 
written  in  barred  time,  and  cannot  without  injury  be  reduced 
to   it. 

As  this  question  affects  also  other  classes  of  hymns,  I  will 
here  say  all  that  I  have  to  say,  or  have  space  to  say,  about 
the  rhythm  of  hymn- tunes;  confining  my  remarks  generally  to 
the  proper  dignified   rhythms. 

In  all  modern  musical  grammars  it  is  stated  that  there  are 

1    The  Art  of  Music,  by  C.  Hubert  H.  Parry.     London,  1893,  1st  edit.,  p.  48. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  53 

virtually  only  two  kinds  of  time.  The  time-beat  goes  either 
by  twos  or  some  multiple  of  two,  or  by  threes  or  some  multiple 
of  three,  and  the  accent  recurs  at  regular  intervals  of  time,  and 
is  marked  by  dividing  off  the  music  into  bars  of  equal  length. 
Nothing  is  more  important  for  a  beginner  to  learn,  and  yet  from 
the  point  of  view  of  rhythm  nothing  could  be  more  inadequate. 
Rhythm  is  infinite.  These  regular  times  are  no  doubt  the  most  im- 
portant fundamental  entities  of  it,  and  may  even  lie  undiscoverably 
at  the  root  of  all  varieties  of  rhythm  whatsoever,  and  further  they 
may  be  the  only  possible  or  permissible  rhythms  for  a  modern 
composer  to  use,  but  yet  the  absolute  dominion  which  they  now 
enjoy  over  all  music  lies  rather  in  their  practical  necessity  and 
convenience  (since  it  is  only  by  attending  to  them  that  the 
elaboration  of  modem  harmonic  music  is  possible),  than  in  the 
undesirability  (in  itself)  or  unmusical  character  of  melody  which 
ignores  them.  In  the  matter  of  hymn-melodies  an  unbarred 
rhythm  has  very  decided  advantages  over  a  barred  rhythm.  In 
the  former  the  melody  has  its  own  way,  and  dances  at  liberty 
with  the  voice  and  sense  ;  in  barred  time  it  has  its  accents 
squared  out  beforehand,  and  makes  steadily  for  its  predetermined 
beat,  plumping  down,  as  one  may  say.  on  the  first  note  of  every 
bar  whether  it  will  or  no.  Sing  to  any  one  a  plain-song  melody, 
Ad  coenam  Agni  for  instance,  once  or  twice,  and  then  Croft's 
148th  Psalm  l.  Croft  will  be  undeniably  fine  and  impressive, 
but  he  provokes  a  smile  :  his  tune  is  like  a  diagram  beside 
a  flower. 

Now  in  this  matter  of  rhythm  our  hymn-book  compilers,  since 
the  seventeenth  century,  have  done  us  all  a  vast  injury.  They 
have  reduced  all  hymns  to  the  common  times.  Their  procedure 
was,  I  suppose,  dictated  by  some  argument  such  as  this  :  '  The 
people  must  have  what  they  can  understand  :  they  only  under- 
stand the  simple  two  and  three  time  :  ergo  we  must  reduce  all 
the  tunes  to  these  measures.'  Or  again,  '  It  will  be  easier  for 
them  to  have  all  the  tunes  as  much  alike  as  possible :  therefore 
let  us  make  them  all  alike,  and  write  them  all  in  equal  minims.' 

Both  these  ideas  are  absolutely  wrong.  A  hymn-tune,  which 
they  hastily  assume  to  be  the  commonest  and  lowest  form  of 

1  And  give  Croft  the  advantage  of  his  original  rhythm,  not  the  mis-statement  in 
Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern,  No.  414. 


54  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

music  actually  possesses  liberties  coveted  by  other  music1.  It  is 
a  short  melody,  committed  to  memory,  and  frequently  repeated  : 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  submit  to  any  of  the  time-con- 
veniences of  orchestral  music :  there  is  no  reason  why  its  rhythm 
should  not  be  completely  free ;  nor  is  there  any  a  priori  neces- 
sity why  any  one  tune  should  be  exactly  alike  another  in  rhythm. 
It  will  be  learned  by  the  ear  (most  often  in  childhood),  be  known 
and  loved  for  its  own  sake,  and  blended  in  the  heart  with  the 
words  which  interpret  it :  and  this  advantage  was  instinctively 
felt  by  those  of  our  early  church  composers  who,  already 
understanding  something  of  the  value  of  barred  music,  yet 
deliberately  avoided  cramping  the  rhythms  of  their  hymn-tunes 
by  too  great  subservience  to  it2.  One  of  the  first  duties  therefore 
which  we  owe  to  hymn-melodies  is  the  restoration  of  their  free 
and  original  rhythms,  keeping  them  as  varied  as  possible :  the 
Plain-song  melodies  must  be  left  unbarred  and  be  taught  as  free 
rhythms,  and  all  other  fine  tunes  which  are  worth  using  should 
be  preserved  in  their  original  rhythm ;  because  free  rhythm  is 
better,  and  its  variety  is  good,  and  because  the  attraction  of 
a  hymn-melody  lies  in  its  individual  character  and  expression, 
and  not  at  all  in  its  time-likeness  to  other  tunes.  This  last  idea 
has  been  a  chief  cause  in  the  degradation  of  our  hymns. 

I  may  conclude  then  that  the  best  of  these  simpler  Plain-song 
tunes  are  very  fit  for  congregational  use.  They  should  be  offered 
as  pure  melody  in  free  rhythm  and  sung  in  unison :  their  accom- 

1  It  would  be  very  damaging  to  my  desire  to  convince,  if  I  should  seem  to  deny 
that  the  mistaken  practice  of  these  hymn-book  compilers  was  based  on  the  solid 
ground  of  secular  common-sense.  If  anything  is  true  of  rhythm  it  is  this,  that  the 
common  mind  likes  common  rhythms,  such  as  the  march  or  waltz,  whereas  elabor- 
ation of  rhythm  appeals  to  a  trained  mind  or  artistic  faculty.  I  should  say  that  the 
popularity  of  common  rhythms  is  due  to  the  shortness  of  human  life,  and  that  if 
men  were  to  live  to  be  300  years  old  they  would  weary  of  the  sort  of  music  which 
Robert  Browning  describes  so  well — 

'  There 's  no  keeping  one's  haunches  still, 
There's  no  such  pleasure  in  life.' 
But  hymn-melodies  must  not  be  put  on  that  level.    It  is  desirable  to  have  in  church 
something  different  from  what  goes  on  outside,  and  (as  I  say  in  the  text)  a  hymn- 
tune  need  not  appeal  to  the  lowest  understanding  on  first  hearing.     The  simple 
free  rhythms,  too,  are  perfectly  natural ;  they  were  free-born. 

2  I  need  only  instance  Orlando  Gibbons'  tune  called  c  Angels.'  The  original  is 
a  most  ingenious  combination  of  rhythms  ;  and  its  masterly  beauty  could  not  be 
guessed  from  the  inane  form  into  which  it  is  degraded  in  Hymns  Ancient  and 
Modem,  No.  8. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  55 

paniment  must  not  be  entrusted  to  a  modern  grammarian.  It  is 
well  also  to  use  most  of  them  in  their  English  form,  the  Old  Sarum 
Use  as  it  is  called  ;  which  happily  preserves  to  us  a  national  tra- 
dition, in  the  opinion  of  some  experts  older  and  more  correct  than 
any  known  on  the  continent ;  and  if  the  differences  in  our  English 
version  are  not  due  to  purity  of  tradition,  they  will  have  another 
and  almost  greater  interest,  as  venerable  records  of  the  genius  of 
our  national  taste.  These  Plain-song  tunes  have  probably  a  long 
future  before  them  ;  since,  apart  from  their  merit,  they  are  indis- 
solubly  associated  with  the  most  ancient  Latin  hymns,  some  of 
which  are  the  very  best  hymns  of  the  Church. 

The  next  class  of  tunes l  is  that  of  the  REFORMATION  hymns, 
English,  French,  and  German,  dating  from  about  1550  to  some 
way  on  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  chief  English  group 
is  known  as  Stcrnhold  and  Hopkins  Psalter^  which  was  mostly 
of  eight-line  tunes.  This  book  was  virtually  put  together  in 
Geneva  about  1560,  and  antiquarians  make  much  of  it.  If 
stripped,  however,  of  its  stolen  plumes  and  later  additions  it  is 
really  an  almost  worthless  affair,  the  true  history  of  it  being 
as  follows.  A  French  musician  named  Louis  Bourgeois,  whom 
Calvin  brought  with  him  to  Geneva  in  154 J,  turned  out  to  be 
an  extraordinary  genius  in  melody  ;  he  remained  at  Geneva 
about  fifteen  years,  and  in  that  time  compiled  a  Psalter  of 
eighty-five  tunes,  almost  all  of  which  are  of  great  merit,  and 
many  of  the  very  highest  excellence.  The  splendour  of  his 
work,  which  was  merely  appreciated  as  useful  at  the  time,  was 
soon  obscured,  for  immediately  on  his  leaving  Geneva,  the  French 
Psalter  was  completed  by  inferior  hands,  whose  work,  being  mixed 
in  with  his,  lowered  the  average  of  the  whole  book  enormously, 
and  Bourgeois'  work  was  never  distinguished  until,  quite  lately, 
the  period  of  his  office  was  investigated  and  compared  with  the 
succeeding  editions  of  his  book.  Now  the  English  refugees 
compiled  their  '  Stcrnhold  and  Hopkins '  at  Geneva,  in  imitation 
of  the  French,  during  the  time  of  Bourgeois'  residence,  and  took 
over  a  number  of  the  French  tunes ;  though  they  mauled  these 
most  unmercifully  to  bring  them  down  to  the  measure  of  their 

1  I  omit,  for  want  of  space,  mention  of  the  late  Plain-song  melodies  (which 
would  give  a  good  many  excellent  tunes)  ;  and  for  want  of  knowledge  the  Italian 
tunes. 


56  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

doggerel  psalms,  yet  even  after  this  barbarous  treatment  Bour- 
geois' spoilt  tunes  were^still  far  better  than  what  they  made  for 
themselves,  and  sufficient  not  only  to  float  their  book  into  credit, 
but  to  kindle  the  confused  enthusiasm  of  subsequent  English 
antiquarians,  whose  blind  leadership  has  had  some  half-hearted 
following.  But  if  these  French  tunes,  and  those  which  are  pieced 
in  imitation  of  Bourgeois,  be  abstracted  from  this  English  Psalter, 
then,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  there  will  remain  hardly 
anything  of  value1. 

To  leave  the  English  tunes  for  a  moment  and  continue  the 
subject,  we  shall  practically  exhaust  the  French  branch  of  this 
class  by  saying  that  our  duty  by  them  is  to  use  a  great  number 
of  Bourgeois'  tunes,  restoring  their  original  form.  They  are 
masterpieces  which  have  remained  popular  on  the  continent  from 
the  first ;  thoroughly  congenial  to  our  national  taste,  and  the  best 
that  can  be  imagined  for  solemn  congregational  singing  of  the 
kind  which  we  might  expect  in  England.  The  difficulty  is  the 
same  that  beset  the  old  original  psalter-makers,  i.e.  to  find  words 
to  suit  their  varied  measures.  But  this  must  be  done2.  These 
tunes  in  dignity,  solemnity,  pathos,  and  melodic  solidity  leave 
nothing  to  desire. 

1  Comparing  the  English  with  the  French  Genevan  Psalter,  I  do  not  think  my 
judgement  is  too  severe  on  our  own.  It  had  a  few  fine  tunes  original  to  it ;  best  of 
all  the  cxxxvii  (degraded  in  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern).  This  is  of  such  excep- 
tional beauty  that  I  believe  it  must  have  been  written  by  Bourgeois  for  Whittingham. 
Next  perhaps  is  lxxvii  (called  81st  in  H.  A.  M.),  the  original  of  which,  in  Day,  1566, 
is  a  fine  tune,  degraded  already  in  Este,  1592,  which  version  H.A.M.  follows  :  it  is 
said  to  have  come  from  Geneva.  Besides  these,  xxv  and  xliv,  which  are  the  only 
other  tunes  from  this  source  in  H.  A.  M.,  are  very  favourable  examples,  and  I  do 
not  think  that  they  will  rescue  the  book.  Nor  can  I  believe  that  these  old  English 
D. CM.  tunes  were  ever  much  used.  They  are  too  much  alike  for  many  of  them  to 
have  been  committed  to  memory,  while  all  the  editions  which  I  happen  to  have 
seen  are  full  of  misprints,  and  the  four-line  tunes  which  drove  them  out  were 
early  in  the  field,  and  increased  rapidly. 

2  When  one  turns  the  pages  of  that  most  depressing  of  all  books  ever  compiled 
by  the  groaning  creature,  Julian's  hymn-dictionary,  and  sees  the  thousands  of  care- 
fully tabulated  English  hymns,  by  far  the  greater  number  of  them  not  only  pitiable 
as  efforts  of  human  intelligence,  but  absolutely  worthless  as  vocal  material  for 
melodic  treatment,  one  wishes  that  all  this  effort  had  been  directed  to  supply  a  real 
want.  E.g.  the  two  Wesleys  between  them  wrote  thirteen  octavo  volumes,  of  some 
400  pages  each,  full  of  closely  printed  hymns.  One  must  wish  that  Charles  Wesley 
at  least  (who  showed  in  a  few  instances  how  well  he  could  do)  had,  instead  of 
reeling  off  all  this  stuff,  concentrated  his  efforts  to  produce  only  what  should  be 
worthy  of  his  talents  and  useful  to  posterity. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    <>.:'    HYMN-SINGING  57 

The  English  ei;^ht-line  tunes  of  Stcrnhold  and  Hopkins  we 
may  then,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  dismiss  to  neglect  :  but 
among  the  four-line  'common'  tunes  which  gradually  ousted  them, 
there  are  about  a  dozen  of  high  merit  :  the  c  being  popular  still 
at  the  present  day  require  no  notice,  except  to  insist  that  they 
should  be  well  harmonized  in  the  manner  of  their  time,  and 
generally  have  the  long  initials  and  finals  of  all  their  lines 
observed.  They  are  much  finer  than  any  one  would  guess  from 
their  usual  dull  presentment.  Their  manner,  as  loved  and 
praised  by  Burns,  is  excellent,  and  there  is  no  call  to  alter  it l. 

Contemporary  with  this  group  there  is  a  legacy  of  a  dozen  and 
more  fine  tunes  composed  by  Tallis  and  Orlando  Gibbons,  the 
neglect  or  treatment  of  which  is  equally  disgraceful  to  all  concerned. 

As  for  the  German  tunes  of  the  Reformation,  attempts  to 
introduce  the  German  church-chorales  into  anything  like  general 
use  in  England  have  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  been  successful, 
owing,  I  suppose,  to  a  difference  in  the  melodic  sense  of  the  two 
nations.  But  some  few  of  them  are  really  popular,  and  more 
would  be  if  they  were  properly  presented  with  suitable  words  : 
and  it  should  not  be  a  difficult  task  to  provide  words  even  more 
suitable  and  kind  than  the  original  German,  which  seldom 
observes  an  intelligent,  dignified  and  consistent  mood.  These 
chorales  should  be  sung  very  slow  indeed,  and  will  admit  of 
much  accompaniment.  Bach's  settings,  when  not  too  elaborate 
or  of  impossible  compass  in  the  parts,  may  be  well  used  where 
the  choir  is  numerically  strong.  He  has  made  these  chorales 
peculiarly  his  own,  and,  in  accepting  his  interpretation  of  them, 
we  arc  only  acquiescing  in  a  universal  judgement,  while  we  make 
an  exception  in  favour  of  genius ;  for  as  a  general  rule  (which 
will  of  course  apply  to  those  chorales  which  we  do  not  use  in 
Bach's  version),  all  the  music  of  this  Reformation  period  must  be 
harmonized  strictly  in  the  vocal  counterpoint  which  prevailed  at 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century ;  since  that  is  not  only  its  proper 
musical  interpretation,  but  it  is  also  the  ecclesiastical  style  par 
excellence,  the  field  of  which  may  reasonably  be  extended,  but 

1  If  old  tunes  are  modernized  out  of  a  fine  rhythm,  a  curious  result  would  bt 
likely  to  come  about  ;  viz.  that  modern  tunes  might  be  written  in  the  old  rhythm 
for  the  sake  of  novelty,  while  the  old  were  being  sung  in  the  more  modern  way 
for  the  sake  of  uniformity. 


58  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

by  no  means  contracted.  It  is  suitable  both  for  simple  and 
elaborate  settings,  for  hymns  of  praise  or  of  the  more  intimate 
ideal  emotions,  and  in  a  resonant  building  a  choir  of  six  voices 
can  produce  complete  effects  with  it.  The  broad,  sonorous  swell 
of  its  harmonious  intervals  floods  the  air  with  peaceful  power, 
very  unlike  the  broken  sea  of  Bach's  chromatics,  which,  to 
produce  anything  like  an  equal  effect  of  sound,  needs  to  be 
powerfully  excited. 

It  is  necessary  to  insist  strongly  on  one  caution,  viz.  that 
grammar  is  not  style,  and  settings  which  avoid  modernisms  are 
not  for  that  reason  a  fair  presentation  of  the  old  manner. 
Nothing  is  less  like  a  fine  work  of  art  than  its  incompetent 
imitation.  And  this  practically  exhausts,  as  far  as  I  am  aware, 
the  material  which  this  period  provides. 

The  next  class  will  be  made  up  of  our  RESTORATION  hymns, 
by  Jeremy  Clark,  Croft,  and  others  who  added  to  the  succeeding 
editions  of  the  metrical  Psalms.  If  there  are  not  many  in  this 
class,  yet  the  few  are  good  ;  and  Clark  must  be  regarded  as  the 
inventor  of  the  modern  English  hymn-tune,  regarded,  that  is,  as 
a  pure  melody  in  the  scale  with  harmonic  interpretation  of  instru- 
mental rather  than  true  vocal  suggestion.  His  tunes  are  pathetic, 
melodious,  and  of  truly  national  and  popular  character,  the  best  of 
them  almost  unaccountably  free  from  the  indefinable  secular  taint 
that  such  qualities  are  apt  to  introduce,  and  which  the  bad  follow- 
ing of  his  example  did  very  quickly  introduce  in  the  hands  of  less 
sensitive  artists.     They  are  suitable  for  evening  services. 

After  this  time  there  followed  in  England,  in  the  wake  of 
Handel,  a  degradation  of  style  which  is  now  completely  dis- 
credited. Diatonic  flow,  with  tediously  orthodox  modulation, 
overburdened  with  conventional  graces,  describe  these  innumerable 
and  indistinguishable  productions.  And  just  as  the  old  tunes 
were  related  to  the  motets  and  madrigals,  so  are  these  to  the 
verse-anthems  and  glees  of  their  time.  These  weak  ditties,  in 
the  admired  manner  of  Lord  Mornington,  were  typically 
performed  by  the  genteel  pupils  of  the  local  musician,  who, 
gathered  round  him  beneath  the  laughing  cherubs  of  the  organ 
case,  warbled  by  abundant  candlelight  to  their  respectful 
audience  with  a  graceful  execution  that  rivalled  the  weekday 
performances  of  Celid s  Arbour  and  the  Spotted  Snakes.     Good 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  59 

tunes  may  be  written  at  any  time,  for  style  is  independent  of 
fashion  ;  but  there  are  very  few  exceptions  to  the  complete  and 
unregrctted  disappearance  of  all  the  tunes  of  this  date. 

We  have  then  nothing  left  for  us  to  do  but  to  review  the 
material  which  the  revival  of  music  in  the  last  fifty  years  has 
given  us  in  the  way  of  hymns. 

This  last  group  divides  naturally  into  two  main  heads  ;  first 
the  restoration  of  old  hymns  of  all  kinds,  with  their  plain, 
severer  manner,  in  reaction  against  the  abused  graces ;  and 
secondly  the  appearance  of  a  vast  quantity  of  new  hymns. 

Concerning  the  restoration  of  the  old  hymns,  we  cannot  be 
too  grateful  to  those  who  pointed  the  right  way,  and,  according 
to  their  knowledge  and  the  opportunities  of  the  taste  of  their  day, 
did  the  best  that  they  could.  But,  as  our  remarks  under  the 
heads  of  Plain-song  and  Reformation  hymns  will  show,  this 
knowledge,  taste,  and  opportunity  were  insufficient,  and  all  their 
work  requires  to  be  done  afresh. 

We  are  therefore  left  to  the  examination  of  the  modern  hymns. 
In  place  of  this  somewhat  invidious  task,  I  propose  to  make 
a  few  remarks  on  the  general  question  of  the  introduction 
of  modern  harmony  into  ecclesiastical  music,  with  reference  of 
course  to  hymns  only.  It  cannot  escape  the  attention  of  any 
one  that  the  modern  church  music  has  for  one  chief  differentiation 
the  profuse  employment  of  pathetic  chords,  the  effect  of  which 
is  often  disastrous  to  the  feelings. 

Comparing  a  modern  hymn-tune  in  this  style  with  some  fine 
setting  of  an  old  tune  in  the  diatonic  ecclesiastical  manner,  one 
might  attribute  the  superiority  of  the  old  music  entirely  to  its 
harmonic  system  ;  but  I  think  this  would  be  wrong. 

It  is  a  characteristic  of  all  early  art  to  be  impersonal1.  As  long 
as  an  art  is  growing,  artists  are  engaged  in  rivalry  to  develop  the 
new  inventions  in  a  scientific  manner,  and  individual  personality 
is  not  called  out.  With  the  exhaustion  of  the  means  in  the 
attainment  of  perfection  a  new  stage  is  reached,  in  which 
individual  expression  is  prominent,  and  seems  to  take  the  place 
of  the  scientific  impersonal  interest  which  aimed  at  nothing  but 

1  This  fact  is  of  course  generally  recognized.  The  explanation  in  the  text  is 
one  which  was  elaborately  illustrated  by  the  Slade  Professor  at  Oxford,  in  his  last 
course  of  lectures  on  painting. 


6o  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

beauty :  so  that  the  chief  distinction  between  early  and  late  art 
is  that  the  former  is  impersonal,  the  latter  personal. 

Turning  now  to  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  music,  and  com- 
paring thus  Palestrina  with  Beethoven  or  Mozart,  is  it  not  at 
once  apparent  that  Palestrina  has  this  distinct  advantage,  namely, 
that  he  seems  not  to  interfere  at  all  with,  or  add  anything  to,  the 
sacred  words?  His  early  musical  art  is  impersonal,  what  the 
musicians  call  '  pure  music  ' ;  and  if  he  is  setting  the  phrases  of 
the  Liturgy  or  Holy  Scriptures,  we  are  not  aware  of  any  adjunct ; 
it  seems  rather  as  if  the  sacred  words  had  suddenly  become 
musical.  Not  so  with  Mozart  or  Beethoven  ;  we  may  prefer  their 
music,  but  it  has  interfered  with  the  sacred  words,  it  has,  in  fact, 
added  a  personality. 

It  must  of  course  be  conceded  that  this  gives  a  very  strong 
if  not  logically  an  almost  unassailable  position  to  those  who  would 
confine  sacred  music  to  the  ecclesiastical  style.  But  it  seems  to 
me  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  genius  cannot  use  all  good  means 
with  reserve  and  dignity ;  and  if  the  modern  church  music  will 
not  stand  comparison  in  respect  of  dignity  and  solemnity  with 
the  old,  the  fault  must  rather  lie  in  the  manner  in  which  the  new 
means  are  used,  than  in  the  means  themselves  ;  nor  would  I 
myself  concede  that  there  is  no  place  in  church  for  music  which 
is  tinged  with  a  human  personality  ;  I  should  be  rather  inclined 
to  reckon  the  great  musicians  among  the  prophets,  and  to 
sympathize  with  any  one  who  might  prefer  the  personality  of 
Beethoven  (as  revealed  in  his  works)  to  that  of  a  good  many 
canonized  seers.  What  is  logical  is  that  we  should  be  careful 
as  to  what  personality  we  admit,  and  see  that  the  modern  means 
are  used  with  reserve. 

Now  if  we  examine  our  modern  hymn-tunes,  do  we  find  any 
sign  of  that  reserve  of  means  which  we  should  expect  of  genius, 
or  any  style  which  we  could  attribute  to  the  personality  of 
a  genius  ?  Let  any  one  in  doubt  try  the  following  experiment  : 
copy  out  some  '  favourite  tune '  in  the  '  admired  manner  '  of  the 
present  day,  and  show  it  to  some  musician  who  may  happen 
not  to  know  it,  and  ask  him  if  it  is  not  by  Brahms ;  then  see 
how  he  will  receive  any  further  remarks  that  you  may  make 
to  him  on  the  subject  of  music. 

These  new  tunes  are  in  fact,  for  the  most  part,  the  indistin- 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGH  61 

guishable  products  of  a  school  given  over  to  certain  mannerisms, 
and  might  be  produced  ad  libitum,  as  indued  they  are  ;  just  as 
were  the  tunes  of  the  Lord  Mornington  school  before  described  : 
and  though  the  composers  and  compilers  of  these  modern  tunes 
would  be  the  first  to  deride  the  exploded  fashion,  their  own 
fashion  is  more  foolish,  and  promises  to  be  as  fugitive1. 

I  have  said  very  little  in  this  essay  on  the  words  of  hymns. 
I  will  venture  to  add  one  or  two  judgements  here.  First,  that 
in  the  Plain-song  period,  words  and  music  seem  pretty  equal  and 
well  matched.  Secondly,  that  in  the  Reformation  period,  and  for 
some  time  onwards,  the  musicians  did  far  better  than  the  sacred 
poets,  and  have  left  us  a  remainder  of  admirable  music,  for  which 
it  is  our  duty  to  find  words.  Tliirdly,  that  the  excuse  which  some 
musicians  have  offered  for  the  sentimentality  of  these  modern  tunes, 
namely,  that  the  words  are  so  sentimental,  is  not  without  point  as 
a  criticism  of  modern  hymn-words,  but  is  of  no  value  whatever 
as  a  defence  of  their  practice.  The  interpretative  power  of  music 
is  exceedingly  great,  and  can  force  almost  any  words  (as  far 
as  their  sentiment  is  concerned)  into  a  good  channel. 

And  if  music  be  introduced  at  all  into  public  worship  it  must 
be  most  jealously  and  scrupulously  guarded.  It  is  a  confusion 
of  thought  to  suppose  that  because — as  St.  Augustin  would  tell 
us — it  is  not  a  vital  matter  to  religion  whether  it  employ  music 
or  not,  therefore  it  can  be  of  little  consequence  what  sort  of  music 
is  used  :  and  the  attitude  of  indifference  towards  it,  which  has 
seemed  to  me  to  be  almost  a  point  of  correct  ecclesiastical 
manners,  must  be  the  expression  of  a  convinced  despair,  which, 
in  the  present  state  of  things,  need  not  surprise.  Devout  persons 
are  naturally  afraid  of  secular  ideals,  and  shrink  from  the  notion 
of  art  intruding  into  the  sanctuary ;  and,  especially  if  they  have 
never  learned  music,  they  will  share  St.  Augustin's  jealousy 
of  it;  and  it  is  the  more  difficult  to  remove  their  objections,  when 

1  There  is  one  point  which  I  cannot  pass  over.  It  has  become  the  practice  in 
modern  books  to  put  marks  of  musical  expression  to  the  words,  directing  the  con- 
gregation when  to  sing  loud  or  soft.  This  implies  a  habit  of  congregational  per- 
formance the  description  of  which  would  make  a  companion  picture  to  the  organ 
gallery  of  1830,  It  seems  to  me  a  practice  of  inconceivable  degradation:  one 
asks  in  trembling  if  it  is  to  be  extended  to  the  Psalms.  It  is  just  as  if  the  con- 
gregation were  school  children  singing  to  please  a  musical  inspector,  and  he 
a  stupid  one. 


62  THE    JOURNAL    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDIES 

what  they  are  innocently  suffering  in  the  name  of  art  curdles  the 
artist's  blood  with  horror,  and  keeps  him  away  from  church.  The 
artist  too,  to  whom  we  might  look  for  help,  is  the  rara  avis  in 
terris,  and,  in  regard  to  his  sympathy  with  the  clergy,  would 
often  be  thought  by  them  to  deserve  the  rest  of  the  hexameter  ; 
but  it  is  really  to  his  credit  that  he  is  loth  to  meddle  with  church 
music.  Its  social  vexations,  its  eye  to  the  market,  its  truckling 
to  vulgar  taste  and  ready  subservience  to  a  dominant  fashion, 
which  can  never  (except  under  the  rarest  combination  of  circum- 
stances) be  good  ; — all  this  is  more  than  enough  to  hold  him  off. 
Where  then  is  the  appeal  ?     Quis  custodiet  ? 

The  unwillingness  of  the  clergy 2  to  know  anything  about  music 
might  be  got  over  if  the  music  could  be  set  on  a  proper  basis  ; 
and  in  the  present  lack  of  authority  and  avowed  principles,  it 
would  be  well  if  such  of  our  cathedral  precentors  and  organists 
as  have  the  matter  at  heart  would  consult  and  work  together 
with  the  purpose  of  instructing  pastors  and  people  by  the  exhi- 
bition of  what  is  good.  This  is  what  we  might  expect  of  our 
religious  musical  foundations,  which  are  justifying  the  standing 
condemnation  of  utilitarian  economists  so  long  as  the  stipendiaries 
are  content  indolently  to  follow  the  fortuitous  traditions  of  the 
books  that  lie  in  the  choir,  supplemented  by  the  penny-a-sheet 
music  of  the  common  shops.  In  the  Universities,  too,  it  should 
be  impossible  for  an  undergraduate  not  to  gain  acquaintance  with 
good  ecclesiastical  music,  and  this  is  not  ensured  by  an  occasional 
rare  performance  of  half  a  dozen  old  masterpieces  which  are 
preserved  in  heartless  compliment  to  antiquity.  It  is  to  such 
bodies  that  we  must  first  look  for  help  and  guidance  to  give 
our  church  music  artistic  importance  :  for  let  no  one  think  that 
the  church  can  put  the  artistic  question  on  one  side.  There  is 
no  escape  from  art ;  art  is  only  the  best  that  man  can  do,  and  his 
second,  third,  fourth  or  fifth  best  are  only  worse  efforts  in  the 
same  direction,  and  in  proportion  as  they  fall  short  of  the  best 
the  more  plainly  betray  their  artificiality.  To  refuse  the  best  for 
the  sake  of  something  inferior  of  the  same  kind  can  never  be 

1  It  must  be  due  to  unwillingness  that  comparatively  so  few  of  our  clergy  can 
take  their  part  in  the  service  when  it  is  musical.  Village  schoolmasters  tell  me 
that  two  hours  a  week  is  sufficient  in  a  few  months  to  bring  all  the  children  up  to 
a  standard  of  time  and  tune  and  reading  at  sight  that  would  suffice  a  minor  canon. 


SOME    PRINCIPLES    OF    HYMN-SINGING  63 

a  policy  ;  it  is  rather  an  uncorrected  bad  habit,  that  can  only 
be  excused  by  ignorance;  and  ignorance  on  the  question  of  music 
is  every  day  becoming  less  excusable ;  and  the  growing  interest 
and  intelligence  which  all  classes  are  now  showing  should  force- 
on  religion  a  better  appreciation  of  her  most  potent  ally.  Music 
being  the  universal  expression  of  the  mysterious  and  supernatural, 
the  best  that  man  has  ever  attained  to.  is  capable  of  uniting  in 
common  devotion  minds  that  are  only  separated  by  creeds,  and 
it  comforts  our  hope  with  a  brighter  promise  of  unity  than 
any  logic  offers.  And  if  we  consider  and  ask  ourselves  what 
sort  of  music  we  should  wish  to  hear  on  entering  a  church, 
we  should  surely,  in  describing  our  ideal,  say  first  of  all  that  it 
mus.  be  something  different  from  what  is  heard  elsewhere;  that  it 
should  be  a  sacred  music,  devoted  to  its  purpose,  a  music  whose 
peace  should  still  passion,  whose  dignity  should  strengthen  our  faith, 
whose  unquestioned  beauty  should  find  a  home  in  our  hearts,  to 
cheer  us  in  life  and  death  ;  a  music  worthy  of  the  fair  temples  in 
which  we  meet,  and  of  the  holy  words  of  our  liturgy ;  a  music 
whose  expression  of  the  mystery  of  things  unseen  never  allowed 
any  trifling  motive  to  ruffle  the  sanctity  of  its  reserve.  What 
power  for  good  such  a  music  would  have  ! 

Now  such  a  music  our  Church  has  got,  and  does  not  use  ;  we 
are  content  to  have  our  hymn-manuals  stuffed  with  the  sort  of 
music  which,  merging  the  distinction  between  sacred  and  profane, 
seems  designed  to  make  the  worldly  man  feel  at  home,  rather 
than  to  reveal  to  him  something  of  the  life  beyond  his  knowledge  ; 
compositions  full  of  cheap  emotional  effects  and  bad  experi- 
ments made  to  be  cast  aside,  the  works  of  the  purveyors  of 
marketable  fashion,  always  pleased  with  themselves,  and  always 
to  be  derided  by  the  succeeding  generation  l. 

Robert  Bridges. 

1  Example  is  better  than  precept;  and  my  own  venture  as  a  compiler  of  a  hymn- 
book  has  made  it  possible  for  me  to  say  much  that  otherwise  I  should  not  have 
said.  In  The  Yat tendon  Hymnal,  printed  by  Mr.  Horace  Hart  at  the  Clarendon  Press. 
Oxford,  and  to  be  had  of  Mr.  Frowde,  price  20s  .  will  be  found  a  hundred  hymns 
with  their  music,  chosen  for  a  village  choir.  The  music  in  this  book  will  show 
what  sort  of  a  hj'mnal  might  be  made  on  my  principles,  while  the  notes  at  the  end 
of  the  volume  will  illustrate  almost  every  point  in  this  essay  which  requires 
illustration,  besides  many  others.  As  I  write,  the  last  sheets  of  it  are  in  the 
press,  and  the  printer  promises  it  in  October. 


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